Privacy and the Information Age - Paperback

by Serge Gutwirth (Author), RAF Casert (Translator)

In a time in which new technologies make it easy to gather and process data, the discussion on privacy tends to focus exclusively on the protecting of personal data. To Serge Gutwirth, privacy involves far more. He advances the intriguing thesis that privacy is in fact the safeguard of personal freedom-the safeguard of the individual's freedom to decide who she or he is, what she or he does, and who knows about it. Any restriction on privacy thus means an infringement of personal freedom. And it's exactly this freedom that plays an essential role in every democracy.

Author Biography

Serge Gutwirth is professor of law at the Free University of Brussels and the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The Rathenau Institute, the Dutch national technology assessment organization, is an independent organization and is one of the institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.